Chenhui Li: Driving Innovation in Hosiery Manufacturing

Founded in 1998, Zhejiang Weina Knitting Co., Ltd. is a home-grown business in Yiwu, a global hub for commerce and industry. After years of development, the established knitwear manufacturer has successfully transformed its operations and earned recognition as a High-tech Enterprise. Coming from a family with deep roots in the knitting industry, Chenhui Li took the reins of the business and assumed overall responsibility for corporate governance, strategic planning and day-to-day operations. By driving internal management reform and technological innovation in tandem, Li has steered the company away from the industry’s race to the bottom on price and increasingly uniform products. The business has since grown into a significant global supplier of premium functional hosiery.

As the company’s leader, Chenhui Li recognised the shortcomings of traditional, loosely managed family businesses. From the outset, he set out to establish a more systematic and efficient management framework, introducing standardised processes across production, sales, finance and human resources. This shifted the business away from management based on individual experience towards a structured, systems-driven approach. Building on Yiwu’s well-established knitting industry cluster, the company adopted a business model combining international contract manufacturing with multiple sales channels. It has obtained certifications under internationally recognised schemes and standards, including SEDEX, BSCI, OEKO-TEX and ISO 9001. These credentials help the company meet the stringent compliance and quality requirements of overseas markets, including Europe, the United States and Australia. The company operates a 64,000-square-metre manufacturing facility equipped with hundreds of imported knitting machines. It has also built a dedicated research and development team alongside a skilled, experienced workforce. Underpinned by standardised operations, the company has been recognised for abiding by contracts and valuing credibility. Annual sales have remained consistently above 30 million pairs, demonstrating the company’s solid operational foundations and sustained business performance.

Alongside strengthening the company’s management foundations, Chenhui Li made technological innovation central to its efforts to stand out in a competitive market. He is not only responsible for overseeing the business as a whole but also leads research and development, regularly visiting the factory floor to work closely with production teams. To address longstanding challenges in functional hosiery manufacturing, particularly in raw material testing and finished-sock setting, Li has led his R&D team in developing practical solutions. Their work has resulted in multiple patents and software copyrights, translating technical advances directly into improvements in manufacturing efficiency and productivity.

Among the company’s many technical achievements, the patent for An Elasticity Testing Device for Knitted Underwear Fabrics addresses existing limitations in fabric performance testing. The device was designed for knitted fabrics used in sports bras and underwear. With adjustments to its operating parameters, it can also be used to assess the performance of hosiery fabrics. Sports socks and functional socks place high demands on fabric stretch and recovery. Conventional knitted fabric testing equipment often struggles to replicate the repeated loading and unloading that fabrics experience in real-world use. It also cannot reliably detect permanent deformation caused by prolonged cyclic stretching, resulting in inconsistent test results that can directly affect the durability of finished products. Chenhui Li’s independently developed device enables controlled stretching and recovery tests, with quantitative recording of fabric elasticity and deformation data. By identifying fabrics that fail to meet elasticity requirements at the raw material stage, it significantly reduces the risk of finished socks becoming loose or losing their shape during wear. The device is particularly well suited to screening materials for high-performance sports socks, establishing a critical first line of defence for product quality.

To further strengthen the company’s fabric performance evaluation system, Chenhui Li also led his team in developing an Air Permeability Testing Device for Knitted Underwear Fabrics. Breathability is a key performance indicator for functional hosiery. Traditional testing methods can be cumbersome and produce inconsistent results. The patented device creates a standardised, enclosed testing environment to measure fabric air permeability accurately and compare multiple fabric samples efficiently. With this equipment, the R&D team can more readily evaluate fabrics made from different yarns and using different knitting techniques. This allows them to match fabric breathability more precisely to the needs of different applications, from sports and exercise to everyday commuting. The technology supports the development of a broader range of highly breathable hosiery products while helping the company meet overseas customers’ stringent requirements for quantifiable fabric performance data.

The Steam Setting Device for High-Strength Breathable Socks addresses a practical challenge in shaping breathable hosiery. Fabrics used in breathable socks have a fine, open-knit structure. Conventional steam-setting equipment can apply uneven steam pressure, causing the fabric to shrink and clogging its ventilation pores, which compromises the breathability of the finished product. Chenhui Li addressed this issue by optimising the steam delivery structure and pressure control system to achieve uniform, gentle steam shaping. The process maintains the socks’ shape while preserving the fabric’s original ventilation pores. It also reduces fabric waste during setting and improves consistency in the quality of finished breathable socks, supporting large-scale production across a wider range of functional hosiery products.

Chenhui Li’s technical innovations connect key stages of production, from raw material screening to finished-product processing. All the equipment has been deployed in the company’s own factory, creating a direct pathway from research and development to full-scale production. He has also led the development of three control systems for knitting machinery: the Control System for Pressurized Steam Sock Setting Machine, the Control System of Circular Loom for Combined Weaving of Multiple Special Yarns, and the Control System for Sock Toe Sewing Machine. Together, these systems establish an intelligent control framework across the production line. They address a longstanding industry challenge of prioritising hardware investment while overlooking software development, enabling data exchange between different types of knitting, sewing and setting equipment. This further strengthens the company’s flexible manufacturing capabilities, allowing it to respond quickly to small-batch orders and changing customer requirements.

With years of experience in the knitting industry, Chenhui Li remains committed to driving the company’s ongoing development through technological innovation. Looking to the future, he plans to further strengthen the company’s R&D capabilities, expand its intellectual property portfolio and advance digital transformation across the entire industry chain. Building on Yiwu’s well-established industrial ecosystem, the company will continue to focus on the global market for premium functional hosiery. Its approach offers a practical example of how traditional knitting manufacturers can modernise their operations and move towards higher-value production.